They Left Me Out of Their Group So I'll Leave Them Out of My Life novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Night Shift

Hartwell Distribution is a long gray building out by the highway with forty loading docks and one working streetlight.

I parked my Corolla at the far end of the lot at eleven forty and sat there with the heater running.

Dock 4 was the fourth door from the corner.

Its roll-up gate stood open, and inside it a forklift beeped backward under the fluorescent lights.

At twelve-ten a young man in a yellow safety vest came out, pulled off his gloves, and sat on the edge of the concrete dock with his shoulders around his ears.

I got out of the car.

I walked across the lot, and he heard my shoes and looked up.

"Corina," Colby said.

He didn't run.

I think he was too tired to.

I stopped in front of the dock and looked at the vest.

It said Hartwell across the back in black letters, and the left sleeve was split at the seam.

"How long?" I asked.

"Cori."

"How long, Colby?"

He looked at his hands.

"Two years this April."

I nodded.

I had known it since the lanyard, and it still hit me hard.

"You're not enrolled," I said.

"I was. Sophomore year, I failed two classes and I stopped going to the third one. I didn't tell anyone. They put me on a hold. In April I was officially out."

"And you told Mom."

"I told Mom in April. She said she'd handle it."

"Handle it how?"

"She said Dad would have a heart attack. That the shop couldn't take it, and I should just take a pause and get back in the fall." He gave a short, awful laugh. "I've been taking a pause for two years."

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